- STANDARDS:
The easiest and most obvious way is to link humane education content to standards. With 45 states having adopted the new "common core standards" they serve as a useful means for integrating humane education into what you're already teaching. Even with strict requirements, educators can integrate humane principles and issues into their work. Teacher Alison Panik, who took our Teaching for a Positive Future online course, started integrating reverence for nature with her required math and science studies. IHE M.Ed. graduate, Christopher Greenslate, wrote an article highlighting how he integrated humane education into his teaching of language arts, including required books like Lord of the Flies. And IHE M.Ed. graduate, Kurt Schmidt has easily found creative ways to integrate humane studies into how he teaches math. If you're a community educator who wants to offer humane education presentations in schools, it's important to familiarize yourself with standards and highlight the strong connections between them and your content. - LAWS:
Many educators may not know it, but in several states, it's actually the law to include some form of humane education in their teaching (especially for younger students). Laws vary, but several states have some sort of legislation that requires teaching about the welfare of animals, character education, and/or environmental education. HEART keeps an updated list of laws related to humane education.
And, last June, Maryland became the first state to require "environmental literacy" for graduation. Other states have varying requirements for environmental studies. Introducing humane education studies to your school(s) can help the district meet legal requirements. - BY ANY OTHER NAME:
While we at IHE like to call what we do humane education, what label we use is not as important as the emphasis on the interconnectedness of human rights, animal protection, and environmental preservation and on nurturing solutionaries. Some educators call it global studies; some say social justice; some just call it education. If there's something happening in your district that aligns with humane education principles and content, plug yourself into that. There are also other programs, growing in popularity in schools, that overlap with some of the elements of humane education. Such programs offer an excellent segue for introducing humane education issues and principles. Here are 3 examples:
Character Education
While fewer than half of states either mandate or encourage character education, many districts encourage teaching positive character traits. While character education itself follows a much narrower definition and vision, teaching about values such as responsibility, caring, and respect easily translates to exploring our impact on people, animals & the earth, and what we can do, both individually and systemically, to create a more just, compassionate world for all.
Social Emotional Learning
According to the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, Social & Emotional Learning, SEL, "teaches the skills we all need to handle ourselves, our relationships, and our work, effectively and ethically." Many schools are beginning to integrate some form of SEL into their curriculum, which provides a great connection to humane education.
Service Learning
Service Learning is another concept that's sweeping classrooms around the world. It varies in scope, but its core focus is bringing what students are learning in the classroom into the real world to address real-life issues and to help students become responsible citizens. Humane education is all about solving real-life problems, so service learning provides a terrific opportunity.
- CREATIVE OPPORTUNITIES:
If you want to start small, taking advantage of special school opportunities is a great strategy. If you're a classroom teacher, look for special school-wide events, like celebrations of Earth Day, World Water Week, No Name-Calling Week, or Be Kind to Animals Week to integrate humane education lessons. You may even be able to recruit your colleagues to tweak their own lessons. If you're a community educator, you can find special events as a means to plug in to schools; but also look for career days, speaker series, and other special events to offer yourself as an expert or resource. - START WITH ONE:
If you're a community educator wanting to get into schools, start by connecting with a friendly teacher who's doing humane education-related work in the classroom or community. Find out what s/he's teaching and customize accordingly. Offer to demonstrate a sample lesson and, if needed, to talk to the school administrator (districts vary as to how much control teachers have over issues like guest speakers). Once you've built one successful relationship, you can branch off from there. Word of mouth is very effective. If you're a classroom teacher, look for one other educator and invite them to collaborate with you on a small project or lesson that embodies humane education. Start with that small success and keep going.
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